Ordeals of the Eid homebound

Come every Eid, homegoers are faced with the same old ticketing trouble. With Eid still weeks away, passengers are already struggling to obtain tickets for home at affordable prices. Sale of advance tickets began in the capital on Friday, but bus operators claimed that all tickets were "sold out" within a few hours. How, we wonder, can so many tickets be sold out in such a short tim? Our report indicates that many people who stood in long queues in the scorching heat were turned away once they reached the counters, yet those with references from influential people or bus operators had no trouble in getting tickets. It is apparent that artificial scarcity is being created by unscrupulous operators in collusion with middlemen, with no monitoring from concerned authorities.

What is equally appalling is that, different companies, plying the same route and the same distance, are charging fares at varying rates even though operators claim that they are charging the amount fixed by the government. From customers' bitter experiences, it seems that operators are taking advantage of the high demand and charging exorbitant prices – 20 to 30 percent more than the fixed ceiling.

With the same problems repeated every year, why cannot the administration ensure that the transport companies do not exploit the high demand of tickets during Eid? Besides, to address the problem of capacity, the administration can take pre-emptive measures, such as taking stock of the demand and supply of seats in trains, buses, launches and domestic air liners, and ameliorating the situation by introducing new fleets or running them on repeat schedules.